Coolink H2T HSF Review - Coolink H2T - Page 2

With so many folks today wanting less noise out of their heatsinks, it is becoming a growing trend for manufacturers to try to accomodate. Some succeed, and others fail. Come join Mike "Darthtanion" Wright as he takes a look at a newcomer in the performance cooling game. The Coolink H2T comes with two fans, but produces less noise than most others that are available. Come see if it can cool as well as remain silent.

The heatsink isn't a huge monster, but it does still manage to carry a rather hefty footprint. Overall dimensions of the sink (without fans) are 76mm x 67mm x 74mm. Weight of the heatsink with fans is 440 grams. It's very close to being a brick!

I've been noticing that aluminum seems to be making a rather large comeback in the heatsink market. I'm not sure why, but we'll have to see whether it makes a difference in the cooling prowess of this unit.

Something to note on this heatsink design is the central wall that goes though the center of the cooler. This is a very important feature since the H2T uses two fans that sit exactly opposite each other. This central wall allows both fans to cool one half of the processor without fighting against each other. Without this wall, the two fans would just be throwing a mass of air into the center and creating a huge turbulence (remember the old Thermaltake Super Orb coolers?). It's good to see that manufacturers are using a little common sense in their ideas.

The Base

The base of the H2T comes very smooth. It was machined down to a fine finish, but wasn't polished. This doesn't bother me too much, but if you're the sort who likes to see your face on the bottom of your sink, then just get out the brass polish and a clean rag and you'll be there in no time.

An improvement over the big brother is that this copper base has been attached more firmly to the heatsink itself. The pins above are forced into the unit to provide a more solid foundation for your cooling. The discoloration you see is nothing more than the milling of the base to make it smooth and level. This was a welcome improvement over the U1P2 model.

The Fans

Coolink decided to go with the Innovative branded fans for this cooler. Each fan measures in at 70mm x 70mm x 15mm and spins at 4200-RPM. This creates an airflow rating of 32-CFM per fan at only about 35dBA of noise output. What all these fancy numbers and terms mean is that it manages to put out a total of 64-CFM airflow and creates very little noise.

Power is fed to the fans by standard 3-pin connectors that can be hooked directly to the motherboard. Since these fans don't have the high RPM ratings, there will be no danger of frying a fan header on your mainboard. Plus, it allows you to monitor the fan speeds through BIOS or software utility.

When testing this cooler, I wasn't able to hear the fans over the sound made by my case cooling fans. Sometimes I get used to the loud fans all over the place, and I don't realize how nice it is to have peace and quiet for a change.

The Clipping Mechanism

The clip used on this model is identical to that used on its big brother. While the slot is very useful, and there isn't a lot of force needed to attach it to the socket, it does have the unique drawback that I noticed before. When you attach the rear of the clip to the back lugs of the socket, make sure that you move the whole heatsink back toward the rear before seating it atop the processor. When I first installed this cooler, I failed to remember this step and nearly had a heart attack when my initial boot-up temperatures shot up to over 50C! Though I wasn't in any danger of frying my core, I have my system set up to boot-failure at over 50C. Once I reinstalled the sink and pulled it back before setting it, then I was able to boot normally and get on with the testing. This is something to keep in mind if you're new to system building.

Other than this, the clip works very well. It holds the sink firmly on the socket, and I noticed no movement during operation.